Abuja, 24 March, 2021 / 2:10 pm (ACI Africa).
A Nigerian Archbishop has called on the people of God in the West African country to exercise the fifth corporal work of mercy, which calls for the visiting the sick and comforting them.
“We must encourage people who are sick or dying to give them hope and assure them of God’s abiding presence,” Archbishop Igantius Kaigama said in his Tuesday, March 23 homily during the Cathedraticum of St. Francis Pegi Parish of Abuja Archdiocese.
In our visits to the sick, Archbishop Kaigama added, “we must not necessarily utter many words but must learn to be attentive and empathetic listeners – don’t increase their pain by suggesting God is punishing them or someone hates them.”
“Many today are sick and have no friends. Some are ‘sick at heart’ from being lonely and forgotten; others are deprived of friendship, especially the socially isolated, the aged, homebound, and those who are perceived as public sinners,” the Local Ordinary of Nigeria’s Abuja Archdiocese bemoaned.
He continued, “The sick are everywhere; in our homes, in the hospitals, and even on the streets. Every day we watch helplessly with pains in our hearts the sufferings of our brothers and sisters who are sick. Some families have even spent their entire savings trying to save their loved ones.”